Oswals yet to re­spond on ‘Taj’

PEP­PER­MINT Grove Coun­cil will im­me­di­ately seek a State Ad­min­is­tra­tive Tri­bunal nod to de­mol­ish the un­fin­ished ‘Taj-on-the-Swan’ man­sion if its own­ers do not ap­peal a fi­nal or­der ex­pected to be sent this week.

“We’ll go straight to the SAT to get the or­der ap­proved, but it could take up to an­other month to get a hear­ing,” chief ex­ec­u­tive John Mer­rick said.

On May 24, the coun­cil agreed that man­sion own­ers Rad­hika and Pankaj Oswal be told to tear down their Bay View Ter­race man­sion.

They will have 21 days to ap­peal the fi­nal build­ing or­der af­ter it is emailed to their Syd­ney lawyers be­fore Fri­day; four months af­ter the coun­cil de­clared the man­sion to be un­fit for hu­man habi­ta­tion be­cause it has re­mained un­touched since Mrs and Mr Oswal left Australia in 2011.

The coun­cil un­der­stood the Oswals would ap­peal any de­mo­li­tion or­der but there had been no re­ply from the May 24 de­ci­sion yes­ter­day.

Mr Mer­rick said if there was no ap­peal and the SAT ap­proved the de­mo­li­tion, ten­ders would be ad­ver- tised and the man­sion could be brought down by the coun­cil midyear.

An Oswal ap­peal to the higher Supreme Court may have to be ar­gued on a point of law or pro­ce­dure, rather than the SAT’s power to con­firm the coun­cil’s de­mo­li­tion or­der.